View full sizeMark Duncan, Associated PressDan Gilbert remains an inspirational figure to most Cavaliers fans -- as well as disgruntled fans of the perpetually disappointing Browns and the winning, but not yet believed in, Indians.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Indians are last in attendance in baseball with a division-leading team. Last by a lot. Last by close to the same margins as the Tribe was last on the field in much of the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

The Browns won't have the same starting quarterback in the season opener as the year before for the fifth straight year. They signed no big-name free agents or medium-named college wide receivers. The rookie starting quarterback will be 29 in October.

The Cavaliers are in the NBA draft lottery again, with dreams of a second consecutive ping pong ball deliverance dancing in their heads. They have a presumptive Rookie of Year in point guard Kyrie Irving, who seems to be everything but durable. Nineteenth in a 30-team league in attendance, they still outdrew three playoff teams. Season-ticket renewals are running at a heartening 75 percent.

The Cavs look up, even though they are down; the Indians have achieved the reverse; the Browns are the same old same old. That's the perception in town, formed to a large extent by the three team owners.

The Indians are really closer to the playoffs, particularly after the addition of an extra wild-card team, than their Cleveland rivals. But they generate less excitement than either. Despite the occasional splurges by the Dolan family -- Ubaldo Jimenez (Ouch!), Travis Hafner (Ow-wee! again), Asdrubal Cabrera and Carlos Santana (Let's wait and see, but have the iodine ready) -- the franchise is considered cheap in the court of public opinion.

The Browns are as close to an unsinkable enterprise as the Titanic was before being blind-sided by the iceberg. That is because the fans remember from a generation ago how it felt to be abandoned by Captain Art Modell, who set a course full speed ahead for Baltimore.

Such an unthinkable loss then becomes current owner Randy Lerner's gain, because the fans wanted pro football back in the worst way. They now must live with the fact, as the joke goes, that this is exactly what they got. In a salary cap sport, Lerner's vast personal fortune is almost besides the point. Viewed through the lens of defeat after defeat, his reluctance to meddle in the football side of the organization is interpreted as uninvolved or uninterested.

The Cavaliers are noisy and distracting because close attention paid to the team's record right now is not a good thing. But in a league whose playoffs are almost as predictable as pro wrestling, with the Cavs no longer among the sport's elite, their feisty owner, Dan Gilbert, still seems to engage his "base" with a passion and immediacy that escapes the other franchises.

First of all, Gilbert will spend the money to get better. It was his decision to take on Baron Davis' huge contract that led to the lottery pick from the Los Angeles Clippers that became Irving. No amount of skill in disseminating his opinions to fans in cutting-edge ways would matter without that.

All teams want to use the new social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to side-step media interpretation and connect directly with their fans. The Indians, bless their MBA degree-holders in the front office, try. The Browns expect their communications people to handle the job.

By contrast, Gilbert (@CavsDan in Twitterese), comes off as free-spirited, frank and at times downright brazen.

When LeBron James, now a public enemy in town, tried to use the players parking garage for himself and his band of buddies at a Miami shootaround at The Q during the 2010-11 season, he was turned away. After an upset Cavs victory the same night, Gilbert Tweeted, "Not in our garage." It put a smile on a lot of faces in a downtrodden season.

Gilbert has also apologized after poor efforts by his team and, most memorably, he came out swinging with an incendiary response to James' defection. This would come off as bullying and rash if it were George Steinbrenner, firing employees at the drop of a game.

Instead, Gilbert -- a native of Michigan in an Ohio State town, a man who has openly modeled the Cavs on the Detroit Pistons -- comes off as just another fan, only with a bigger megaphone and a heavier wallet.

Bill Veeck, long ago in the late 1940s, enjoyed the closest fan identification of any Cleveland sports owner ever. If he had had more money and been born into a world of instant global communications, he'd be Gilbert.

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